~ A Blog of the African Diaspora

Room With A View

There is a room of twenty people, four are black and the other sixteen are white. Black people make up twenty percent of the population while white people make up eighty percent of the population in this room. Of the four black people, one of them is a criminal. That would make the black population’s criminal rate exactly twenty five percent. Of the sixteen white people, three are criminals. That would make the white criminal rate not quite nineteen percent. But because the black people have a higher rate, the majority of the people in the room, the white people, decided that the most effective way to combat the potential for crime in the room was to watch the black people since they had a higher rate of criminality.

In order to remind everyone in the room of the importance of keeping a watchful eye on crime, the people decided to put up posters and distribute reminders that the black people had a higher propensity for crime even though only one black person was in fact a criminal. The people decided that the actual number of people committing crime was irrelevant because the per capita rates could show that the black people were statistically more responsible for crime, despite the fact that when you added the number of criminals up, one black and three whites, the black population would have a one in four chance of being responsible for crime while there was a three in four chance that the crime was committed by a white person.

But the constant reminders around the room that black people have a higher per capita rates helped to ingrain into the people a natural condition of thinking that made everyone distrust black people. Whenever anything went wrong, whenever something came up missing, the first impulse was to ask the black people what happened. The fact that the white people had their own criminals among them was soon forgotten because the propaganda trained everyone to think that black people were more likely to be criminals.

The black people in the room thought it was unfair that they were the first suspects for any crime in the room. They knew that one of them was a criminal. But to assume that the black people were the ones behind the crime, or that the black person was the one who committed the crime, was not helpful to finding the real culprit. The black people tried to remind the white people that there were three criminals in their midst.

But the white people simply pointed to the propaganda that they had put up around the room. The white people simply pointed to all of the things that said black people were more likely to be criminals and that was more than enough to justify the majority of the people’s suspicion. The black people protested. The white people accused the black people of not being helpful in their effort to solve the crime problem in the room. The white people accused the black people of doing everything that they could to thwart the effort to control the proliferation of crime in the room. Soon more posters followed that black people could not be trusted.

The black people in the room began to look at the posters. The black people began to realize that in order to become part of the mainstream order they had to accept mainstream thinking. The constant propaganda was hard to resist. While the majority of the white people were quick to absorb the propaganda, to varying degrees, the black people were affected by the constant misinformation. One black person didn’t have a problem believing the propaganda and was quick to point to the other black people whenever something was amiss. Another black person developed a distrust of anything the white people had to say. The other black people would vacillate between the two. Sometimes they would stand with the white community. Sometimes they would stand with the black community. But most times they didn’t care about what was going on.

The people in the room were never able to eliminate their crime problem despite how hard they tried. If a crime was committed and there were no clues, it was always assumed that a black person was the culprit. Whenever a white person was found to be the perpetrator, that white person would be given every benefit of a doubt. They didn’t mean it. It was just a prank. It was an accident. Or whatever else could be claimed to dismiss the deed. However, if the crime simply couldn’t be downplayed, the white person paid for their indiscretion and that was the end of it.

However, whenever a black person was found to be the guilty party, a stern message had to be sent that crime by black people would not be tolerated. The laws of the room had to be upheld or else anarchy would result. And when the black person was found guilty by a jury of white peers, the white people would point to the propaganda and point to the black people as if to say that black people are everything the propaganda said all along.

The crime continued. The rates held steady with a ratio of one black person and three white people committing crime. But thanks to the propaganda many white people did not believe white people were the biggest source of the crime problem. Whenever asked, the people knew in their hearts that black people were the source of the majority of their criminal activity, despite the reality of what happened in the room. The crime rates proved it beyond a reasonable doubt, with the help of a considerable amount of propaganda.

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10 thoughts on “Room With A View”

What an excellent article! It’s the kind that I’d like to seen used in a sociology class, only I’d start it off with red people and blue people, and let the class discuss it and even write an essay on it. In the next class, if the bright ones hadn’t figured it out, I’d reveal the stats are reflective of white and black crime. Wouldn’t that be an interesting discussion!

You might try to pass along this to several universities or even high schools if you have any contacts or the inclination.

Now apply that same concept to social services…welfare, medicaid, food stamps, WIC, Head Start etc. and other supportive social services. This certainly would be an amazing teaching tool in economics, civics, government and sociology.

Thankyou for your annallogy. I will remember it and tell it to others.Your annalogy is interesting but how should the folks in the story reduce crime? Your annalogy seems to put great focus on how the White folks in the room misrepresent crime in the Black community. Story seems to make the white folks primaraly responcible for solving the crime problem in the room. The White folks are the prime movers. Mabey I misinterpreted this. No annalogy can be perfect Ill give you credit for showing the slant in some stats. However there is no personal responibilityin your annalogy.

The article was interesting but in reality the room is our country which has Neigborhoods. Many black folks have to flee black neighborhoods to live in White neighborhoods where it is safer for them. It has been my experience and I am Black that when a neighborhood experiences an increace in Afrian Americans then the crime rate increaces also. Your room with a view also fails to illustrate that racism has declined while many problems of Black crime have increaced. While the power of racist like the KKK who once controlled most of the south has diminished self destruction has increaced.

Your annalogy also failed to represent that the white part of the room is quite dandy and most desirabele places to live on earth. It has some problems whith crime while the place in the Black side of the room is still one of the most desirable places to live on earth but has large problems with crime and the Whit folks barley care because it has little effect on them. Most of the Blacks in the room are attempting to move to the white side of the room because this is a solution for themselves and their families which is effective.

Additionally Your room with a view omits the part of Black reality that Black folks biggest problems with crime come from other Blacks by a wide margin. Black crime victims themselves blame and spread “propoganda” beliefs about crime and race based on experience and statistics.

Leave it to someone like interracialpower to show how white people are being unfairly judged by black people. Does anybody remember that one black person in the analogy that went with whatever the white community said because they bought into the propaganda so much? This is a prime example of such behavior. This is the type of black person who will promote the age old stereotype that white neighborhoods are good while black neighborhoods are bad and other propaganda such as the amount of crime in a neighborhood is proportional to the percentage of black people in the neighborhood. First hand example of how some black people are ready to buy into the blatant racial hatred. Interracial my ass! This is a person who hates their black heritage enough to try to deny it by claiming that they are not black but are interracial.

wow…I find it hard to believe interracialpower IS black. Baby you’ve been Clorox’d! To spout such stereotypical trash is an insult.

While white people may not do crimes ‘black people’ are purported to do…it’s the
WHITE people:
-who are EMBEZZLING katrillions of dollars from corporations,
-molesting children
-SEXIN’ our young black male students,
-creeping to the hood to get their trick on and then going home to their unwitting families..
-their children are creating meth labs under their noses, -creating hate lists checking them twice-cuz their going to shoot up the school regardless of who’s naughty or nice
-getting caught up in child pornography
-children are disappearing at their own hand
-holding their family hostage , captive, false imprisonment etc
-murder/suicide
-killing their wives who are PREGNANT, and they were already having an affair, wth?!
-anorexic, cutters, binge/purge
-their children are the BIGGEST plagiarists in college!
PLEASE do not make me go on.

Just because the zip code has cleaner streets-doesn’t mean their neighbors are better.

who do u think is watching Desperate Housewives with their dysfunctional selves??? and why is it so popular??

And regardless of how much of an Oreo U THINK U r…those dysfunctional suburbanites will always see u as a nigga. I don’t give a damn if ur driving an infiniti, audi, Saab, Volvo, or the obligatory SUV, benz or bmw-ur always going to be a wannabe in their eyesight.

Whenever a white person was found to be the perpetrator, that white person would be given every benefit of a doubt. They didn’t mean it. It was just a prank. It was an accident. Or whatever else could be claimed to dismiss the deed. However, if the crime simply couldn’t be downplayed, the white person paid for their indiscretion and that was the end of it.

Case in point:
I CANNOT remember the city here in MI, but a white male was CAUGHT robbing a bank. and he was given probation….why?
Because he lost his job as an engineer and if he hadn’t lost his job he would not have robbed a bank. wth? do people WITH money rob a bank? I’ve never seen a Carlos or Antoine let go after robbing a bank.

The worse part of the story??? sympathy POURED in for that man, and he received job offers, a home-paid for, furniture etc. Months later-he was picked up ON DRUG charges-he dropped dirty, and THEY THREW THAT CASE OUT…although it CLEARLY violated his probation.

iventbyblogging and brotherpeacmaker
Thankyou for your replys to my poorly spelled post they are a fine birthday present. Here are my replys with love to yall
My birthday was August 11th so I will remember your post.
Obamma is an integrator and I am an Interracial power because I believe in intergration like MLK. Most Black folks have similar opinions but I just expressed them in writing.

I am black and Dark skinned. I love my heritage and I believe that White folks have many privledges in society due to racism. Many problems in Black communities are a result of historic, recent past and present racism. I just wrote a letter to a Hispanic friend challenging her that she might have some racial biases aganst Blac people, so I also fight against racism.

I am interracially married, I adopted a Black child and I have a mixed son with my wife. I believe that we all have some racial biases against ourselves and others. Yall seem to despise certain angles of critisism. I am not an oreo or a self hater I love Obama and Black culture which is positive, the kind of black folks who I or most people would desire as nieghbors, is the culture which I celebrate. I critisise because I love my people. All our problems do not decend from the White man. We must self correct while fighting racism.

A ghetto culture exist amongst whites and blacks which celebrates irresponcible parenting, and thug culture. This kind of culture terrorised my neighboood as a child and the White folks and my family moved as far away as possible. I have been attacked by a group of criminals of my own color and knoked unconsious while reading the bottom of thugs nike’s footwear. One of the guys later went to jail for murder. I moved from that neighborhood and I attempt to avoid it. This is the experence that many Black middle class folks can attest to. Many are safer in a White neighborhood. Not all neighborhoods some still have the kkk.

It is still true that many black folks do better for themselves finacially and in other ways if they move from predominantly Black neighborhoods. I believe that intergration is one practical answer to self empowerment and the destruction of racism. Obamma may soon intergrate the White house and African Americans who intergrate White nieghborhoods will find many better services there due to historic and past economics. When Whites move out of the neighborhoods many business and the political will of White controlled cities leaves so services in black neighborhoods suffer. This has been my experience.

One can have problems with elements of Black culture and still love the afrospere and Black people. Please, So I believe in intergration, just how that makes me hate Black people or an oreo? Most Blak folks have similar views. Hostile, name calling rhetoric is beneath the standard of respectable debate.

“Many black folks have to flee black neighborhoods to live in White neighborhoods where it is safer for them. It has been my experience and I am Black that when a neighborhood experiences an increace in Afrian Americans then the crime rate increaces also. Your room with a view also fails to illustrate that racism has declined while many problems of Black crime have increaced.” – interracialpower

“Your annalogy also failed to represent that the white part of the room is quite dandy and most desirabele places to live on earth.” – interracialpower